Got an opinion on oil drilling off Beaufort County’s coast? Share it by midnight

The Trump administration has taken steps that could allow oil drilling off the Atlantic coast —an area that includes the Beaufort County coastline — and today is your last chance to weigh in.

Before the U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management can lease public waters for drilling, the law requires it to ask for public comments. The deadline for those comments is 11:59 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017.

In January, after nearly two years of debate and consideration, the Obama administration shut the door on drilling in the Atlantic Ocean. Following an executive order by President Donald Trump in April, however, the BOEM started preparing a new National Outer Continental Shelf Oil & Gas Leasing Program for 2019-2024, which would open parts of the Atlantic to offshore drilling.

As of June, opposition to the drilling and seismic airgun blasting had grown to millions of East Coast residents, more than 125 municipalities, 41,000 businesses, half a million fishing families and 1,200 local, state and federal elected officials have formally opposed offshore drilling, including Beaufort Mayor Billy Keyserling, according the environmental organization Oceana.

Fishing, tourism and recreation support roughly 79,000 jobs and generate about $4.4 billion in GDP in South Carolina.

This story was originally published August 17, 2017 at 9:15 AM with the headline "Got an opinion on oil drilling off Beaufort County’s coast? Share it by midnight."